Alabama Landscapes
Transportation
Transportation
Alabama has about 94,000 miles of road, 3,700 miles of railroad, 1,270 miles of navigable inland waterways, 2 international airports (Birmingham and Huntsville), and 4 regional airports (Dothan, Muscle Shoals, Tuscaloosa and Mobile).
Figure T1. Trucks, I-20 between Pell City and Birmingham. About 60,000,000,000 vehicle miles per year are driven on Alabama Highways. The highways also move about 80% (by weight) of the freight that originates in the state. Note the median barrier, built recently to decrease the death toll on this section of interstate. (Image © Mike Neilson)
Of the 94,000 miles of road, 905 miles are interstates (I -65, I-20 and I-59).
In 2003, An Alabama driver was likely to own a pickup truck or SUV or Minivan (44% of registrations in the state were pickups and SUVs and Vans compared with 36% nation-wide) and drove about 13,000 miles, the third highest in the nation (only Wyoming and Vermont had higher vehicle miles per capita). Twenty one percent of her travel was on an interstate highway. Alabamian's drove their vehicle alone to work and took 25 minutes (each way) to commute (Table T1).
Table T1. Percentage commuting methods, Alabama and USA 2003 (US Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
The total number of miles driven on Alabama roads has doubled since 1980 (Figure T2). The increase reflects an increased population and increased individual per capita driving
Figure T2. Total annual vehicle-miles driven on Alabama Roads 1980-2004 (US Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
The 3,700 miles of railroad in Alabama is operated by four companies and almost exclusively used to haul freight.
Figure T3 Rail lines in Alabama (http://www.wilbursmith.com/latts/states/al/SecD.pdf)
Figure T4. Rail Transport. Birmingham, Jefferson Co. Sloss Furnaces in the background. Note the open cars with sand and gravel freight. (Image © Mike Neilson)